Onbathula Guru

Synopsis: Billa, Ranga and Kochadaiyaan are dissatisfied with their respective marriages. Along with their friend Guru, who is about to marry, they resolve to turn bachelors once again and live life to the fullest.

Movie Review: What is Onbathula Guru exactly? Is it a spoof film on the lines of Tamizh Padam? Is it a debaucherous buddy movie? Is it a keep-your-brains-out comedy? The answer to all of these questions is a resounding ‘No’. In fact, this doesn’t even belong in the list of ‘so bad it’s good’ movies.

Comedy might be the trend in Tamil cinema these days but even a comedy needs a set-up for the jokes to stand upon. For almost the entire first half of Onabathula Guru, we are presented with disjointed scenes, including digs and spoofs of stars and films that are plainly unfunny leaving us to scratch our heads wondering what we are doing in the cinema hall. And, when director Selvakumar decides to introduce a semblance of a plot (the friends go to Bangalore and try to impress Sanjana, a girl who they meet there), he goes about constructing the blandest of scenes (including a gorilla rape!) that do not even invoke a reaction.

Characters appear and disappear at random (Premgi Amaren being the classic example) while joke after joke falls flat. Even a bad college skit will have more laughs than this one. Amusingly, the actors seem to be having quite a bit of fun. But, for us, the movie is only as entertaining as waiting alone at a bus stop for hours.